Village neighbours face £70k bill in row over 250-year-old tree

Neighbours of a historic Cotswolds village church face a £70,000 bill in a row with their diocese over a 250-year-old tree. Richard and Melanie Gray were shocked to receive a 'threatening' letter claiming their Sycamore tree had damaged the nearby vicarage.

The pair are now embroiled in an ongoing dispute over plans to fell the landmark—known as the Four Shire Tree—in picturesque Lower Brailes, Warks. The Gray's land borders the Grade I-listed St George’s Church in the leafy village and the tree is 15 metres (49ft) from both their property and the vicarage.

Their home, which dates back to the 1700s, was the original vicarage before the church divided the land to build a new one and sold the old building. Mr Gray said the grand tree had even been billed as a selling point for potential buyers when the couple bought The Old Parsonage in 1982.

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But now the Diocese of Coventry is demanding the tree be chopped down or a £70,000 root barrier installed. Legal agents working for the 12th century church's insurers say it will seek to reclaim the eye-watering amount from the pair, leaving them disgusted.

Grandfather-of-six Mr Gray, 76, a retired inventor, said: "The irony is unbelievable. Here’s an organisation which is supposed to have pastoral care and love thy neighbour, and then they say take this tree down or we’ll charge you £70,000.

"To have a threatening letter sent out of the blue by the church doesn't seem to fit into their Christian ethos for me when they are a spiritual organisation supposedly looking out for the local community. And then there's the environmental impact too, the tree is 250-years-old and a citadel of invertebrates, insects and animals.

"It doesn't seem to fit with the church philosophy of 'All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small' if they are going to destroy a historic tree. There's been no knock at the door or anyone coming around to talk about this.

"I think they’ve arranged one of the biggest solicitors in the country to act on their behalf, too. The vicar hasn’t shown his face and is yet to say anything. I think they should adopt a positive attitude towards trees and their benefit to parishioners and do their utmost to save trees, not kill them.

"So here we are locking horns with an organisation that's supposed to have the pastoral care of the community in their hands and its doing exactly the opposite. We're not going to pay and we're not going to take it down and the church are still threatening to send us this rather large bill."

The Diocese of Coventry decided to divide the plot in the early 1980s to create space for the new-build vicarage. It sold the original home and its remaining garden into private ownership, and the pair, who separated but remain close friends, were the second people to privately own it.

But now the diocese claims the tree’s roots have caused subsidence and are demanding it be chopped down – or it will install a root barrier costing £69,768.88, plus VAT. But in a separate report from January 2023, Mr Gray says engineers working for the diocese deemed the tree to not be at fault - blaming hot weather for the subsidence.

Mr Gray added: “Their own engineers initial report said this large tree was not the cause, and that it was likely the hot weather. I said the report said it wasn’t the tree, but they haven’t acknowledged this fact. I’ve done a bit of research and it’s a moderate risk tree, so it’s not a high risk tree.

"Sycamores reach their maximum mass after 100 years. So when they built the parsonage in their own garden it was already 100 years into its maturity and getting slightly smaller."

The affected new vicarage also suffered a burst mains pipe, which flooded the property with 13,000 gallons of water daily for three days. Mr Gray says the damage maps are all centred around the water tank - and that it's the likely culprit instead of the tree.

He said: "The damage was right underneath the water tank and my friends in the church have pointed out that most of the damage is inside the new vicarage. And if you look at their engineers drawings it shows nothing on the outside which could have possibly been caused by this tree.

“The old Reverend, Rev Morgan, noted that there were no cracks or major damage. The only place in the house that has cracks was on a wall the furthest away from the tree. They owned the tree when they built the new vicarage there. They sold it as part of the property, and even featured it as a benefit.

“Our house has been there for 200-odd years and it has no damage at all. It’s a stable part of a stable environment. All the walls cracked are the ones right underneath where the water tank had burst - 13,000 gallons a day for three days is significant. They want us to pay the cost of the repairs essentially. There’s nobody living in it. It’s been relatively unoccupied since 2016.

"The garden is like a jungle, doors have gone rotten. It’s neglected, a bit like they are now neglecting the community. There's talk of them selling it, so if they are also putting profit first that isn't very Christian-like either."

The tree is named after the nearby Four Shire stone, which signifies the borders of the four Cotswolds counties: Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and Gloucestershire. The church itself is known locally as the "Cathedral of the Feldon" as one of the biggest and "most beautiful" in the county of Warwickshire.

Mr Gray added: “The tree is unusual in that it has four trunks. It was in the centre of the vicarage garden. The tree was central to the fate celebrations, just up the road is the Four Shire stone. It has a bit of an identity and it’s a magnificent tree. I’ll probably be dead before anything is enforced in law, I'm 76. But I care about the tree. Its absolutely splendid. hey’ll need a court order, they can’t just enforce this.”

A Clyde and Co spokesperson said: “We are confident that our work has been carried out professionally and fairly at all times.”